Philosophy Wire: Living cells. Living cells?

Experts in optical physics have developed a new way to see inside living cells in greater detail using existing microscopy technology and without needing to add stains or fluorescent dyes. [1] "Living” cells. How funny. Our whole existence reduced into lifeless things... "Living" cells. How tragic. Our whole existence reduced into living things...

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Philosophy Wire: Mimicking life… Mimicking nothingness…

An international joint research team succeeded in fabricating a neuromorphic network composed of numerous metallic nanowires. Using this network, the team was able to generate electrical characteristics similar to those associated with higher order brain functions unique to humans, such as memorization, learning, forgetting, becoming alert and returning to calm. [1] Mimicking life. Even though we do not understand it. Or I would say, especially because we do not understand it! Because if we did, we would experience it. And there would be nothing left to mimic. Look at your hand. Feel its void. Can you touch yourself?

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Philosophy Wire: Polite robots… Desperate humans…

Photo by Spiros Kakos @ Pexels

New members of online communities are more likely to stick around if they're welcomed by fellow members - but Nickerson and his team found that new Wikipedia users who interacted with advisor- and protector-bots were significantly more likely to become long-term contributors than those greeted by humans. That remained true even when the bots were contacting users to point out errors or delete their contributions, as long as the bots were cordial and clear about their reasons. [1] All we want is love. And kindness. And even when it is not there, we will invent it. And we will see through this rough cosmos at its true potential. And we will find love where there is only void. And we will see death where all we saw was the terror of life…

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Philosophy Wire: Possible values… Actual values…

Researchers have implemented a prototype quantum device that can generate and analyze a quantum superposition of possible futures. Using a novel quantum algorithm, the possible outcomes of a decision process are encoded as a superposition of different photon locations. Using interferometry, the team show that it is possible to conduct a search through the set of possible futures without looking at each future individually. [1]

Possible values. Actual values.
For the cosmos, it matters not.
For the values are not the ones describing it.
Nor the potential of these values.

A circle drawn on the dirt.
Infinite. Finite. Indescribable.
The circle cannot be measured.

The wind has risen…

The circle is fading now… 

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Philosophy Wire: Possible values… Actual values…

Researchers have implemented a prototype quantum device that can generate and analyze a quantum superposition of possible futures. Using a novel quantum algorithm, the possible outcomes of a decision process are encoded as a superposition of different photon locations. Using interferometry, the team show that it is possible to conduct a search through the set of possible futures without looking at each future individually. [1]

Possible values. Actual values.

For the cosmos, it matters not.
For the values are not the ones describing it.
Nor the potential of these values.

A circle drawn on the dirt.

Infinite. Finite. Indescribable.
The circle cannot be measured.

The wind has risen…
The circle is fading now…

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Philosophy Wire: Species… Definitions… Fertile world…

Most evolutionary biologists distinguish one species from another based on reproductivity: members of different species either won't or can't mate with one another, or, if they do, the resulting offspring are often sterile, unviable, or suffer some other sort of reduced fitness. [1] Defining species based on their ability to survive. But the most essential elements of existence are those which do not last more than a glimpse of an eye. Take a good look at the cosmos. And you will find nothing but fleeting shadows. A bird’s song. A baby’s cry. A river beside. There is no need to mate with anything. You are already part of them. The world was fertile. Until the moment it gave birth for the first time…

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Philosophy Wire: Adhesives. Without… adhesives. Logos. Existence.

A research team has used plasma treatment to make fluoropolymers and silicone resin adhere without any adhesives. [1] We are slaves to our definitions. We have defined “adhesives” and now we discover adhesives which are not… adhesives and yet they are… adhesive. In the beginning there was everything. And then man spoke. And all exploded into the oblivion of existence. Imagine a world with no definitions. Imagine a cosmos without words. There would be nothing in this world. And thus, everything…

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Philosophy Wire: Non-existing limits. Small electrons. Infinite God…

Physicists have observed the quantum mechanical Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox in a system of several hundred interacting atoms for the first time. [1] Made up definitions. Laws without a law maker. Fake limits in a limitless world. Stop seeing what you think of. Imagine particles as big as galaxies. Nebulas as small as quarks. There is no paradox in anything. Except in the belief in paradox itself. Let the world shape your thoughts. Expand into the outer limits of the cosmos. Look yourself in the mirror of existence. Look at God. Inside a small electron. Moving the universe…

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Philosophy Wire: Finding life… Automatically… The soul of the cosmos…

MIT researchers have used physics principles to improve the performance of a machine-learning system, trained on data from a NASA crowdsourcing project (in which volunteers search telescopic images for evidence of debris disks around stars, which are good indicators of exoplanets) [1] Looking for life in all the wrong places. Life is not where computers see. It is not in the sea. Nor the trees. Life is not even in us. Life is nowhere. Imagine a world full of computers. Discovering debris disks everywhere. It would be a dead world anyway. Until a man came into that world. Looking for debris disks… Look at that flower. So beautiful. So alive. And yet, it was dead a second ago…

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Philosophy Wire: Six year olds.

Living together in communities requires mutual cooperation. To achieve this, we punish others when they are uncooperative. Scientists have discovered now that even six-year-old children feel the need to reprimand antisocial behavior, and that they are willing to take risks and make an effort to be present when the guilty one is punished. [1] We like to think that some things are common for all humans. We like to discover what humans do, even from when they are kids. We like to believe that it is who we are as kids, that reveals our true nature. But we are not who we are when we are kids. But when we decide, as adults, to still be one despite everything telling us otherwise…

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Philosophy Wire: Jupiter lights… the flaws of set theory.

Jupiter's intense northern and southern lights pulse independently of each other according to new UCL-led research using ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories. [1] Things being part of something else. Things behaving as if they are not part of anything else. Tautologies and antinomies. Sets and individual irrational values. Everything as part of everything. Anything as part of nothing. There are no sets. Except One. Which is a set. And at the same time it is not…

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Philosophy Wire: Schizophrenia is dying. And so is everything else.

The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned.

Part of the problem turns out to be the concept of schizophrenia itself. Arguments that schizophrenia is a distinct disease have been "fatally undermined". Just as we now have the concept of autism spectrum disorder, psychosis (typically characterized by distressing hallucinations, delusions, and confused thoughts) is also argued to exist along a continuum and in degrees. Schizophrenia is the severe end of a spectrum or continuum of experiences. [1]

Schizophrenia is a spectrum, so we cannot define it.
In a way, we are all schizophrenic to some extent.
Apply the same way of thinking to other things and see your world collapse.

You are not alive.
You are dead.
To some extent…

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Philosophy Wire: Philosophy Wire: DNA. Humans extinction. [Questioning the obvious]

DNA from extinct humans discovered in cave sediments. [1] We talk about other humans who became extinct. But they are not extinct. And they are not “other people”. They are part of you. They are you. As you are everyone else who will come in the future. It is your voice which echoes in the depths of the universe. It is their DNA found in the cave. It is your DNA found in the cave. Question every word you say and you will see that you are everything. You are not the one who is talking. It is the man from the cave and all the people who came after him. Think as you thought before you went into the cave. There are no words outside of the cave…

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Philosophy Wire: Measuring. Equilibrium. Science melting…

"Imagine you threw an iceberg into the sun and right before it's melted and gone, you wanted to know, 'How hot is that iceberg at that moment?' Would that be a meaningful question to ask?" says Charles Stafford, a professor in the Department of Physics in the UA's College of Science. "According to traditional physics, it wouldn't be". Put simply, traditional knowledge holds that properties such as temperature or voltage can only be measured as long as a system is in equilibrium. (Hint: an iceberg plunging into the sun is not) However now scientists have shown that actually any state of a system whatsoever, even far from equilibrium, can be characterized by a temperature. (with weird results whatsoever: e.g. the electrons inside a home laser pointer device get hotter than a temperature we call 'plus infinity’) [1] Ridiculous definitions used in order to define the undefined. Measurement is only possible when a system is in equilibrium. But every system is constantly changing. Measurement is the basis of all science. But how can we develop science when it’s very foundations are literally shifting? We like building castles on the sand. And naming the sand concrete just won’t do the trick. Nothing can be measured. And yet everything is here. The iceberg is cold. The Sun is hot. The iceberg is melting now. You can see it. You can talk about it. But you cannot measure it. So? Do not go and touch the iceberg. You know you will burn yourself.

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Philosophy Wire: Autism! Not a disease!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-05-28]:

Autism Speaks, one of the largest organization dedicated to autism advocacy and science, recently updated its mission statement for the first time since its founding in 2005. They dropped the word “cure”. “The organization grew to believe that autism is something to be worked with for promoting fulfilling and productive lives, rather than something that has to be done to”, board of directors member Stephen Shore told The Huffington Post. [1]

The day Aristotle invented logic and the notions of “right” and “wrong” the world was destroyed. The moment society was divided into “sick” and “healthy” people we lost the philosophical innocence which allowed us for so many years to look at the stars. Down here on earth, not in the sky above… [image with kid with autism]

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Philosophy Wire: Peppered moths. Evolution. Big words…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-10-21]: Peppered moths change colour due to the pollution of the environment. [1] A small change we want to see as big. A small adaptation which we want to name “evolution”. Humble thoughts. The cause of our progress. Big words. The cause of our demise.

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Philosophy Wire: Evolution: Defining life!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-11-26]: Scientists claim that viruses are living organisms! Because we can trace back the evolution of their genes. [1]  Again: Because a specific scientific theory can analyze something, we consider it… alive!!

Wow.

Science creating life!
What we cannot understand is dead. Literally!

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Philosophy Wire: What is religion? A not so obvious question!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-05-31]: People tend to talk about religion and science as if they knew what they talk about. But what is religion? What is science? If science says something e.g. about ethics without (obviously) hard “evidence” about it’s validity, does it behave as religion? If religion is based on intuition – which is a source of inspiration in science as well – does it work like science? We seek evidence in religion and yet science has none for any of it’s axioms. We consider religion irrational and yet it is logic which dictates that every creation has a creator. Maybe we should leave tags out of this. And just… think! In ancient Greece religion was not separated from science [Feyerabend]. We must go back to the past in order to leap forward into the future!

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Philosophy Wire: See a chemical bond. Without seeing anything at all.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-03-17]:

Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a weak bond on the way to becoming a molecule.

This fundamental advance, reported Feb. 12 in Science Express and long thought impossible, will have a profound impact on the understanding of how chemical reactions take place and on efforts to design reactions that generate energy, create new products and fertilize crops more efficiently. [1]

But can we see a chemical bond?

Do chemical bonds exist?

Or do we just NAME what we see “chemical bonds”?

We all too often misunderstand what we see with what exists. And this is mainly due to the fact that we have gotten away from Philosophy. We believe we know and yet one of the greatest achievements of great philosophers was to admit that we do NOT know anything. We “see” and yet the only thing we do, the only thing we CAN do, is to think! To imagine!

Imagine everything.

Imagine nothing… What we imagine is indeed what exists!

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Philosophy Wire: Cells. Tentacles. Symesthesia.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-02-06]: Scientists discovered that cells can 'feel' their surroundings using finger-like structures. [1] But could cells NOT feel their environment? Could we NOT feel our environment? Are we not all interconnected? But where do the tentacles end? Where does the cell end? Bound by our very own definitions, we cannot see the obvious...

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